


Slowly from the start

by RobinWritesChirps



Category: Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier - Holmes/McMahon/Lang & Lang & Gale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Dates, First Time, Fluff, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 00:43:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20684678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps
Summary: Ja'far got convinced into a blind date set up by his friends and finds much more than he could have ever hoped for.Crazy kids falling in love, y'all. I will use every damn naughty line of this song as a fic title if I must do it myself. Fluffy af. Sherrezade is immortal.





	Slowly from the start

Ja'far arrived early to their first date. A set-up arranged by his friends, something about having found the girl of his dreams but just real enough that he could let himself be persuaded. Ja'far was not much of a romantic, not so much a lack of interest on his part than the absence of opportunity thus far - but he had not been seeking any, either. His curiosity was however piqued by the descriptions of the girl, of course all more glowing than the next, and here he found himself with an open heart and a rose in his hand, thirty minutes early in a near empty coffee shop.

The wait passed slowly. Twenty minutes till the time he had been told to come, fifteen… He didn't think of himself as especially attractive, but he had dressed to the best of his narrow abilities and had put some gel in his hair for a fresher look. Twelve, ten. He hadn't tried dating since high school, where his faltering interest had gotten the best of him when there was so much knowledge to be learned right now and so much time left for love later if he ever wanted to. Eight minutes. Five minutes. He ordered drinks for them both. Three minutes. The door chimed open.

He knew she was it before she even threw a glance at him. Not necessarily that she was indeed his date, although he hoped for that too, but he felt the twist of fate upon his heart and knew that his future must involve her as soon as she walked into the shop. Her eyes first, gleaming with intelligence and kindness even from a distance. Her beauty then, how soft her round face, the lovely chestnut hair she had tied up, wetly dotted with the November drizzle outside, but nothing that could tarnish her glow or the joy surrounding her. When she spotted him and smiled, Ja'far's life began anew.

"Ja'far, is it?"

Seconds passed before he realized his turn to speak had come and gone, staring dumbly, struck by stars.

"I'm Sherrezade," she introduced herself.

For a split moment he thought he should kiss her hand to try and impress her, be foolishly romantic, but his reason got the better of him and he simply gestured at the empty chair across the booth with as charming a smile as he could muster.

"This is for you," he blurted out much less suavely, sliding the rose towards her.

But she smiled back and picked it up. She looked at it for a few seconds, then broke the flower from the stem and fixed it in her hair. Ja'far's heart made a salto in his chest.

"Lovely," she said. "Thank you, Ja'far."

Her smile was bewitching. Ja'far knew he believed in nothing beyond nature and science and reality, but something about Sherrezade was out of this world. Not a ghost or a fairy, something more like a dream, a wish. He felt very peaceful suddenly and all fear was gone from him.

"I got us drinks," he added. "Hot cocoa, I hope you don't mind."

"Hot cocoa sounds perfect."

They both reached for the same cup of hot chocolate. Soft fingers brushed against Ja'far's and sent his heart into an electric frenzy. He snatched his hand back to grab the other cup, only for the same mishap to occur a second time. Sherrezade, bright eyed smiling Sherrezade, stilled his hand and pushed one cup towards him, taking the other for herself.

"Sorry..."

But she was unbothered. She took a large gulp before speaking and Ja'far had to stop himself from staring.

"My friends told me a lot about you," she said. "I was afraid they'd talked you up to get me out of home but… I'm starting to think they didn't."

Without him meaning too, his mouth let out a ridiculous snort and he could only shrug modestly. He was thinking precisely the same about what his friends had told him. But then, he didn't think that mere words could ever have paid justice to a living, breathing woman such as her. They were bond to fall short.

"You, erm, you don't typically do this then, do you? Get set up on a blind date?"

She smiled secretively. Her fingers tapped against the stiff cardboard tube wrapped around her cup.

"I'm more of a lone cat," she replied. "How about you?"

"Not recently," he said, trying to make his solitude sound cooler than it was, but the lie caught him unguarded and he corrected himself, "Erm, not at all, actually. I've been studying. Working on my PhD, natural and life sciences."

"That sounds pretty serious," she said and he could not parse for sure if she was faking being impressed out of taunting or teasing. "I imagine you'll have a lot to teach me."

Ja'far didn't know how to tell her that, in this instant, all the hard knowledge he had accumulated over the years was fading into irrelevance.

"Not as much as you! I was told you're a writer."

Now was her turn to be humble. A half shrug and her eyes glistened with something entirely magic.

"Aspiring writer," she corrected. "Poetry, short stories… Whatever I'm inspired to in my spare time. I make ends meet with clickbait blogging."

"That's impressive," he said in awe. His hands were wrapped around his paper cup to keep them warm. Sherrezade's left hand was between them on the table but he dared not grasp it. "I'm not… I've never really been the creative type, I think. I'm more…"  _ Stuck-up. Nerdy. _ "Serious, probably. Not that you're… Oh, I'm sorry."

Sherrezade was smiling into her cup. The fingers between them tapped against the table excitedly. They looked soft and warm. Ja'far gulped.

"Do you take everything seriously, then, Ja'far?"

Recklessly, he slid his hand toward hers, looked into her eyes so as to not draw attention to it.

"It's not so much seriously," he said and his fingertips brushed against hers, "as cautiously, rather. I take things slow, I don't like unnecessary risks."

She took the touch he offered, entwining their fingers. Ja'far glimpsed down at the look of her smaller hand in his, marveled at the feel of it. When he looked up, he found Sherrezade's eyes boring into his. Her thumb stroke his palm gently.

"I thought a man of science would know that," she said in a hushed magical whisper, "the risk is worth it when the calculations land exactly right."

An hour later, Sherrezade rolled off of him, her panting quieting down into soft satisfaction, the sweetest melody Ja'far had ever heard. Her hair was sticking to her forehead and he pushed it to the side to better look at her. Cheeks flushed, very pink lips, and the sumptuous, naked rest of her too was infinitely tempting. His heart beat in a thundering of drums. He was sweaty and much too hot and wearing one lone sock, his boxers hanging forlornly from the same foot, but above all he was at peace, satisfied for once in his life.

"So…" He attempted but his mind was yet cloudy and the rest of a sentence was never formulated.

Sherrezade unceremoniously pulled the condom from him, prompting a groan for how entirely ridiculous this whole situation was. She tied it, threw it away (he noted a perfect landing in her paper bin in the corner and mentally congratulated her) and went right back to snuggling him. Ja'far could hardly believe the reality of the past hour of his life.

"So that was you taking things slow," Sherrezade said with a teasing kiss against his cheek. "How was this for a first date?"

"It felt like…" Like the tidal wave surrounding him from all parts and drowning him in her. Like hearing your mother tongue after decades in a foreign land. Like finding out your puzzle was missing its center piece only by having it click into place and feeling whole for the first time. "Like a third date."

She smiled. With gentle fingertips, she too pushed his hair back, played with a curl behind his ear. She lingered there, feeling the pulse of his heart. Was hers beating at the same rhythm as his? He didn't know, not yet.

"I'm going to take a shower," she announced.

She untangled herself from his embrace and his arms were suddenly heavy with the absence of her. He sighed. He wanted to hold her always, be at her side in this moment and all the ones to come. A voice inside himself was taunting him for the flowery sentimentality, but the much louder voice screamed for Sherrezade back in bed with him. On the nightstand, the rose he had given her was safely sitting on a pile of old books.

"Well, are you coming?" She asked from the doorway to her ensuite.

Ja'far could only jump to his feet to join her.

They scheduled their second date the next afternoon. Perhaps too close to the first, but Ja'far wondered if he would survive another day without her from now on. He thought of her all night, all morning. His heart was pumping with a new vigor, love and adoration fueling every beat. Was this what every person felt when they fell for someone? Somehow, that seemed impossible to fathom, the reality of a whole new world within every person out there and especially within him. How could a person live a normal life and carry the depth of love in their heart and soul and body, the heaviest yet lightest burden he had ever known? Ja'far, having never known it before, knew now that he could never fully live with it, or so much less without it.

They arrived at the exact same time, which was fifteen minutes early. Ja'far realized with comfort that he had not been doubting she would be here. Their connection, unexpected as it had been, was too intense to be solely one-sided. She beamed when she noticed him, hopped the few steps between them excitedly and took his hands in hers.

"Sherrezade," he sighed out in relief.

He had missed her, mere hours and yet forever ago since he last (and first) saw her. He seemed to breathe easier around her, to think clearer and better. She was wearing fingerless gloves but even in the chilly afternoon of autumn, her skin was warm and soft between his palms.

"About yesterday..." They both started at the same time.

She smiled and gestured him to go ahead. Ja'far pulled her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against her knuckles before speaking.

"I wanted to apologize," he said. "About yesterday."

An arm round her waist, he brought her close to him. The weather, he told himself, forced him to. It was so very chilly today. They had met up in a park and the wind was blowing softly all around them but so long as they were in each other's arms, it seemed that they could not feel the cold. Sherrezade's grin was insufferably teasing.

"To apologize? And what for?"

"For being... hasty," he mumbled.

He feared others might hear, but the park was graciously near empty. Yesterday's date had been impossibly perfect, but it hadn't been him, not truly. He was a cautious man, slow to decision and never reckless. Whoever had smooth talked Sherrezade yesterday wasn't him and he would now set things right by her. Their date today would be short and sweet and in all manners completely decent. He had scheduled it an hour before a class so that his ravenous body wouldn't be able to take over again, for lack of time. But Sherrezade looked up at him with her large teasing eyes and he lost some of his resolve for a moment.

"Hasty," she repeated. "Is that what we were?"

Her arms wrapped around his neck and toyed with the loose curls under the brim of his hat behind his neck. He smiled sheepishly.

"I'm not that kind of guy," he said truthfully. "I don't usually... I'd never done that. At all."

"At all?"

His cheeks were very warm but he nodded anyways.

"I didn't mean to mislead you, Sherrezade. I'm not, I'm not a seducer. I've never felt like this and I just... went with my feelings. I'm sorry."

She hadn't stopped smiling. Leaning up, she kissed him on the lips and instantly he was soothed.

"About yesterday," she said pointedly. "I'll tell you how  _ I _ feel." It was her turn to pull his hand for a kiss on the back of it. "Happy. Warm, comfortable, excited." One swift motion and his hand was flat against her chest where her heart was beating strong. He blinked. "Don't you feel it too, Ja'far?"

Their fingers caught together softly between their chests.

"Of course I do," he said. He pressed their foreheads together. They were breathing in the same air, beating with one same heart, he knew now. "I  _ did _ mean to take this seriously, and I still do. To take things slow. I never expected to be so... so enticed. By you."

"Oh,  _ you _ were enticed, were you? I think I remember  _ you _ kissed  _ me _ ."

"Maybe I did, but  _ you _ were the one who..." He stopped right in his tracks, for the memory might turn him pink in the face again. " _ Regardless _ , my point was that I want to give this a real shot. I don't want you to think that, erm, what happened yesterday was all I wanted from you."

She pushed herself closer into his embrace and closed her eyes.

"Good. Cause it's not all I want from you either."

They kissed again, both leaning into each other at the same time. When they pulled from one another, he offered her his arm to take for a walk in the park.

"We don't have to rush anything," he said sincerely. "Sherrezade, we have all the time in the world and I want to savor every moment. Let's take things as slow as we can."

Forty minutes later, Sherrezade came splendidly under Ja'far's tongue, her heels digging into his back, hips pushing up into him one last time. Her fingers loosened their tight grip on his hair and she gave a final whimper before her entire body flopped back against the coffee table where she lay limp, still half clothed.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but," she muttered, her legs still wrapped round his shoulders dropping to the ground, "I think we've failed at taking things slow again."

Ja'far leaned against her thigh. He supposed that, objectively, he wasn't particularly well seated, legs cramped with kneeling between her legs on the hardwood floor, but he wondered if he had ever felt more comfortable before. He shook his head lazily.

"Faster than yesterday, too," he said. "I blame the weather."

"Let's go with that, yes."

Ja'far told himself that they had, at least, had some moderate resolve to keep things as sincere and committed as they could. They had earnestly been hoping to have a peaceful walk in the park which had, at least on his part, not involved any plans for bedroom activities. They couldn't have foreseen the motorbike that ran past them and splashed the entire content of a muddy puddle all over Sherrezade's skirt and leggings. What else could they have done but go back to her place (thankfully quite close) and have her change out of them? And once she had taken off her drenched things, could anyone really blame her for being in no rush to put on dry ones? Ja'far knew he was in no wrong for taking what she had so eagerly offered then. He only cursed himself for not making it to the bed.

Horny thoughts could wait, would have to. He took one glance at the time and stood up.

"C'mere," she said with a lazy smile, still in the lull of climax. "Let me enjoy  _ you _ ."

She sat up, hooked her thumb in one of his belt loop and pulled him to her. Palming him through his jeans, she made him groan but he had to stop her hand there.

"I have a class in fifteen," he sighed. "I'll be late if I leave now. I'll miss it entirely if I let you make me stay."

Stroking him through too thick fabric, more a tease than an actual caress, she smirked.

"Would that be so terrible?"

"Tomorrow," he promised, one small step backwards to escape her delicious clutches. "I'll go to class now, I have to tutor tonight so I'll be home late, but I'll see you tomorrow."

Her hand dropped to her lap as she accepted her defeat.

"Think of me?"

He leaned to give her a kiss, longer than he had the time for, cupping her face close to his.

"I haven't stopped thinking about you since we've met," he said. "And I don't believe I ever will."

Of course, the class was hell. He missed the beginning of it, but soon found that he could not focus on it anyways. His erection was tamed down − what was the use when he wasn't with Sherrezade? − but all parts of him were screaming for her back in his arms. Tutoring was much worse, having to keep himself together with his pupils impossible, but for the sake of his future or his present dignity, he pushed down all thoughts that were less than pure and taught to the best of his current abilities.

The thoughts came rushing back as soon as he was home. It was the sex, but it wasn't. Ja'far had never done that before Sherrezade, but he had also never fallen in love. He'd never felt this deep and instant surge of adoration for another person. Yet unknown only yesterday morning, it was now filling every single cell of his body, accompanying every breath. It was the way she talked, the way she looked at him, how clever and witty she was. He missed her. He didn't think he would ever stop missing her. He opened his phone to get out of his usual airplane mode during college hours and found text messages sent in his absence. Evidently, he hadn't been the only one in longing agony.

_ I can't wait to be tomorrow <3 _ _ I'm thinking about you _

An hour later, another text.

_ I'm thinking about you a lot _

A last one quite recently.

_ I'm off to bed, I miss you here _

He couldn't possibly reply any faster, though his fingers were shaky with excitement.

_ goodnight! I can't wait to see you! _

A few seconds till his phone lit with a picture. Sherrezade was in bed, dim light from her desk lamp, soft face and tousled hair in a loose bun, a pale orange tank top which was probably pajamas. His heart sank with fondness and love.

_ you'll see more of me tomorrow _

He thought of her as soon as he woke up the next day, a specific part of him especially. He sighed. They had agreed to meet at 11 and Ja'far, ever assiduous and dedicated, had thought he would use the rest of the morning to get work done, but he realized now how foolishly hopeful that had been. He pulled the selfie she had sent him the night before again, looked into her soft eyes.

"She is a sorceress," he told his ceiling. "She is a goddess. She is the love of my life."

11 seemed an eternity away. His work, which had up until then been his only passion, now seemed a chore, a burden. He sent a text.

_ would 10 be okay? _

She took minutes to reply, or a lifetime in his eyes.

_ make it 9 _

He knocked her door at half past eight and Sherrezade, gorgeous sleepy Sherrezade, pulled him inside by the collar and brought his lips to hers. He had her caught in his arms as soon as he crossed her threshold and wondered if he would ever let her go. He held her as he laid her down on her bed, as he made love to her and he held her so very close against him when they were done. They were sweaty, probably a little bit gross, but the very thought of moving away from her embrace was hell and so they lay there quietly. Rain was falling dully against the window.

"Do you think we're crazy?"

Sherrezade stirred and made herself very comfortable on top of him. He could feel her smiling against his skin.

"For each other, if that's what you mean, yes," she said. "In general, I don't think so."

"But… But how fast we've rushed…"

Ja'far was unconvinced, but didn't know how to put to words what he was feeling. Sherrezade, of course, did. Ever the word smith.

"People have had sex since the dawn of times, love," she said and turned him to mush in just one word. "There's nothing unique about it, but everything at the same time. I think that's what beautiful about it. There's a whole world and so many people living their own lives, but the same emotions live in all human hearts. All I'm grateful for is that I live with billions of people and I still found you."

He breathed out in relief. There was no greater feeling than being understood, than finding the person whose heart fit into yours snugly and perfectly. Content with being with her now was one thing, but Ja'far was projecting him into a future that only involved Sherrezade, every remaining day of his life. Gratitude was hardly the start of it.

"I wish you were my wife," he said.

He stroke fingers through her hair, gorgeous long flowing hair blanketing her shoulders. He felt her sigh contentedly as she nuzzled his neck, and supposed he had not entirely ruined his chances by being too forward.

"I wish you were," he repeated. "I wish we were married and we'd come home to each other every day of our lives."

She kissed his neck and pressed herself closer to him.

"Yeah?"

"And I wish we'd only leave this bed so that we could come back to it as soon as we could."

"Mmh, that would be nice."

It already seemed that way, like the universe was contained in the embrace of her. He had never loved before her, and never would besides.

"What would you say if I asked you to marry me?"

She stretched an arm and lazily rested her elbow on him to support her head as she looked at him. Leaning down a little, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

"Took you long enough," she said.

She kissed him again, longer, more insistent, better.

"Yes," she replied eventually. "I'd say yes."


End file.
